ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates Caspar Kegler's cultural, intellectual, and commercial context for the various factors that inspired novel medicines and contributed to the man's celebrity. Kegler's early medical marketing prefigures many techniques that became common later, including the use of printed advertising and brand names, as well as attempts to manipulate consumers with new products that appealed to their hopes and fears. To understand how medicine changed through commercialization in the sixteenth century, one must enter the heart of this vibrant city and trace the wealth of its medical entrepreneurs. The chapter argues that close connections between commerce, alchemical experimentation, and attempts to bridge social and professional boundaries within Leipzig inspired Kegler's novel medicines and fostered his empirical approach to healing. The center of Leipzig was the city hall and marketplace, ringed by the opulent homes of patricians and captains of commerce.
